


Just Two Boys on a Beach

by McStupid



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Big Brother Sokka (Avatar), Character Death, Confessions, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Heart-to-Heart, Light Angst, M/M, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Protective Zuko (Avatar), Sad Sokka (Avatar), Sad with a Happy Ending, Secrets, but like it's still a war so, dw it's just sokka's mom, they're child soldiers yall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:02:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28187355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McStupid/pseuds/McStupid
Summary: “Then you didn’t love her like I did!”Katara’s cruel jab still rang in Sokka’s ears. She had come back from her little field trip with Zuko and apologized immediately- she wasn’t thinking, she said. She was so sorry, she said. She knew he loved Mom. And he forgave her, because of course he did. He was, first and foremost, a big brother trying to protect his little sister while the world collapsed around them.Basically, this is Sokka and Zuko processing Sokka's reaction to that comment and his trauma overall (which I feel like we tend to overlook, tbh)
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 160





	Just Two Boys on a Beach

_ “Then you didn’t love her like I did!” _

Katara’s cruel jab still rang in Sokka’s ears. She had come back from her little field trip with Zuko and apologized immediately- she wasn’t thinking, she said. She was so sorry, she said. She knew he loved Mom. And he forgave her, because of course he did. He was, first and foremost, a big brother trying to protect his little sister while the world collapsed around them. 

_ And doing a shit job of it, too,  _ a nasty voice in his head reminded him.  _ You haven’t protected her from fucking anything.  _

Sokka kicked irritably at the sand with tanned, bare toes as he wandered down the moonlit beach at Ember Island. He wished he could stay mad at Katara, but the truth was… he didn’t really feel much at all. Just so  _ heavy.  _

Without any particular destination in mind, and dimly aware he shouldn’t stray too far from the house, Sokka plopped into the sand, mindlessly tracing patterns in the fine grains with his fingers. Yue watched him gather his thoughts. 

The beach was silent for a long while, save the gentle lapping of waves on the shore and Sokka’s soft breathing. He tried to appreciate how beautiful the moon drenched beach looked, tried to notice his favorite constellations twinkling above him like jewels on a black cloth. Sokka tried to stop trembling. He wished Yue were here- the  _ real  _ Yue, not this stupid lunar stand-in. 

“It’s really hard,” Sokka finally whispered to Yue, even if she couldn’t hear him. His voice caught in his throat, and all of a sudden he was crying, tears streaming silently down his face. He wasn’t even sure  _ why  _ he was crying, just that his lips tasted salty and his nose was running and quiet tears dripped off his chin. 

And that’s how Zuko found him. 

“Hey,” a raspy voice said, approaching from the left. “You’ve been gone pretty much since we got here, are you okay?”

Sokka turned his face away from Zuko, hurriedly swiping at his eyes, even though he knew it was fruitless. He was probably all red and puffy, and Zuko would take one look at him and know that he wasn’t a warrior after all- that underneath all the bravado and war paint, he was actually just a guy who missed his mom. He and Zuko had just started dating and it was  _ way  _ too early for this feelings shit. So far it had just been giggly makeout sessions and secret-telling by firelight- nothing like  _ this. _

“I’m fine,” Sokka cleared his throat. “You should go back up to the house.”

“Can I sit with you?” Zuko didn’t wait for an answer, but folded himself into a seated position on the beach with a grace that reminded Sokka of his royal lineage. 

“Not like I came out here to be alone or anything,” Sokka snapped, still not looking at his boyfriend. 

Zuko was quiet. Despite his annoyance, that was something Sokka liked about him; Zuko might  _ do _ any number of crazy stunts without thinking, but he never  _ said  _ anything without carefully weighing each word. “I get it. You’ve been the oldest of the group for so long- everyone else puts their shit on you, and you have to handle it. But you can talk to me. You know. If you… if you want.”

The lump in Sokka’s throat grew painfully because yeah, that was definitely part of it. He knew how to comfort Katara when she had a nightmare about Mom, knew how to make Aang laugh when he got caught up in his grief, knew how to get Toph to accept help on the rare occasion when she was hindered by her blindness. Lately, he was even learning how to pull Zuko out of his black moods. But as for himself… that was always filed away in the back of his brain. There would be time for that later. He was the protector, everyone’s big brother. 

“I want,” he admitted quietly, finally making eye contact with Zuko, who was looking at him with concerned golden eyes. 

“So, what’s wrong?” Zuko took his calloused hand and squeezed it gently. 

“I miss my mom,” Sokka mumbled, feeling his cheeks heat up, and just like that, the tears started flowing again. 

Zuko scooted closer. “What was she like?”

“She was…” Sokka took a deep breath, biting his lip to stop it from quivering.  _ Shameful.  _ “She was always so calm. Like, she always knew what to do- which, I  _ never  _ know what to do.” He shook his head, disgusted with himself. “And she was so patient with me, and she told me stories…”

Zuko tilted his head, thinking. “She sounds wonderful, Sokka. I bet she’s very proud of you.”

A lightning bolt of white-hot rage flashed in Sokka’s stomach, and he shoved Zuko’s hand away. “Proud of  _ what _ ?” He spat. “My only job is to protect Katara, and I can’t protect her from  _ fucking anything,  _ not to mention that time I fucked up and got my Dad  _ sent to fucking Fire Nation prison.  _ And I couldn’t even protect my own people, so how could she ever-”

“Woah, hey.” Zuko’s calm voice cut through Sokka’s increasingly frenzied voice. “You need to breathe, Sokka.” Slowly, giving the Water Tribe warrior time to track his movements, Zuko slowly laid an arm across Sokka’s shoulder and tugged him close, so they were leaning against one another. 

Sokka hiccupped. 

There was a long silence, and Sokka was positive he’d scared Zuko away for good, with his rambling and his messy emotions and his-

“You’re an amazing older brother,” Zuko’s warm voice cut through his internal monologue. “To everyone. So many things have happened in this war… that you just couldn’t control. Sometimes things just go wrong, and there’s nothing we can do.”

“I really hate that,” Sokka admitted softly, nestling into Zuko’s touch. “I’m supposed to be the plan guy.”

“I know,” Zuko replied simply. 

There was a long pause, and Sokka focused on the tide, the steady push-pull of the ocean, dependable as his own breathing. His tear tracks had dried, leaving his face feeling tight and salty, and the rage had been replaced by a smoldering sadness. 

“Can I tell you something crazy?” Sokka finally asked. 

Zuko inclined his head, encouraging his boyfriend to continue. 

“Sometimes I think that if we can only defeat Ozai, I can get my mom back… like, killing him will undo all the terrible shit that he did. And I know that’s not going to happen, but…”

“My mom isn’t dead,” Zuko replied, Sokka thought glumly, the worst possible way. “Or maybe she is,” the prince barrelled on, piquing Sokka’s interest. “It was this thing with my- with Ozai… I’ll tell you another time. The point is, she’s been gone since I was young. And I was just going to say that I miss my mom, too.”

Sokka laid a hand on Zuko’s knee comfortingly, and they just sat there and watched the tide beat ceaselessly against the sand. Two boys on the precipice of manhood, fighting on the frontlines of a war of their grandfathers, sitting on a beach. Just two boys who missed their mothers. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a quick little vignette that popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it, so please forgive the short length. I'm honestly not really sure how I feel about this one, so I'd love your feedback!!


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